Kimmins Contracting is currently working on a demolition project here in Tampa, which presented some unique safety factors we do not come across every day. The building located at 1915 N. Dale Mabry Highway. was a tall, four story office building sandwiched between a recently renovated McDonald's restaurant and Spruce Street.
To attack the north end of the building, Kimmins had to obtain road closure permits from the Florida Department of Transportation to close the Dale Mabry turn lane and from the City of Tampa to close Spruce Street. The streets were closed for a 36 hour time frame. Once the streets were closed, we then began the demolition using a CAT 330 Excavator with a shear attachment and a DAEWOO 225 Excavator to systematically tear down individual stair towers and elevator shafts, floor by floor and bay by bay. Upon completing the demolition on the north end of the building, we were able to reopen both Dale Mabry and Spruce Street.
The south end of the building proved to be a more difficult challenge; Kimmins worked side by side with the McDonald's management staff to complete the task at hand. It was agreed that the drive through portion of the restaurant would be closed from 7:00 pm Sunday evening through 4:00 am Monday morning. This allotted us the necessary time to perform this delicate portion of the operation. Upon the drive through closure, we proceeded by attaching heavy pulling cables at strategic locations of the structural steel columns. Once the cables were attached, we proceeded to torch cut slices into the steel columns. This allowed us to then pull down the top two and a half floors of the structure away from McDonald's and onto the existing debris pile.
Once we were successful with that portion of the demolition, we resumed normal daytime operations. This included, sorting and loading of various debris streams including concrete, scrap, non-ferrous scrap and demolition landfill debris.
